Mum taken to court over son's 'term-time holiday'

Sarahsaver

School is 'out' for 13 weeks a year. Plenty of time to arrange holidays.
Many schools are full up, like ours. The policy is unauthorised holidays may result in a child being taken off roll. Things are tight and schools have to serve the community. How can or why should a school serve you if you are not going to send your child to it as agreed!

BTW as for holidays/cost. If you cannot afford it dont go :eek:, skiing in some places is cheaper over xmas, or move somewhere like Leicester which breaks up earlier than most - we finish mid July;)

simongregson

Bagpuss1973 wrote:

Plus maybe you should all be speaking to your schools about the time that they close for "training" surely this could be scheduled into the proper school holiday period? And any teachers out there...yes this would mean you went to work whilst the children were off but so do millions of other working parents on an almost daily basis

We already do go to work when the children are off on training days. And in case you didn't realise what schools do in this time is to do training, for example in improving lessons to make them more engaging for pupils, or preparing new work for the ever changing array of qualifications. During most 'holidays' teachers will be doing work preparing for the next term

I have worked for 12 hours today, as will many of my colleagues. Only five hours were paid. So yes, we do deserve our holidays. There are enough people leaving the profession due to the stress of the job. Please try to bear in mind that for every hour that a teacher spends teaching they will spend an hour preparing, planning and marking.

When schools are closed due to the weather it is usually because staff who travel some distance into school cannot make it in. It is also because in today's society many parents would choose to sue a school if their child slipped on ice/got hit by a snowball etc.

Most schools, for everybody's information will teach through until the end of the summer term. This will include GCSE work that will be examined at the start of the next year for many students, particularly with many subjects becoming modular. Miss it, miss out!

Views expressed are personal.

seven-day-weekend

There are thirteen weeks a year in which to take a holiday, without taking a child out of school.

Yes, I know it is more expensive. When our son was young, my husband was a teacher and I was a lollipop lady, so therefore we had to have school holidays. We went camping or stayed with friends.

The kids like it better anyway.

frank_potter

Sarahsaver wrote:

School is 'out' for 13 weeks a year. Plenty of time to arrange holidays.
Many schools are full up, like ours. The policy is unauthorised holidays may result in a child being taken off roll. Things are tight and schools have to serve the community. How can or why should a school serve you if you are not going to send your child to it as agreed!

BTW as for holidays/cost. If you cannot afford it dont go :eek:, skiing in some places is cheaper over xmas, or move somewhere like Leicester which breaks up earlier than most - we finish mid July;)

Agreed by whom?

frank_potter

seven-day-weekend wrote:

There are thirteen weeks a year in which to take a holiday, without taking a child out of school.

Yes, I know it is more expensive. When our son was young, my husband was a teacher and I was a lollipop lady, so therefore we had to have school holidays. We went camping or stayed with friends.

The kids like it better anyway.

Just as people can be either rich or poor financially people can also be rich or poor time wise as well.

I presume that seven-day-weekend and her teacher husband also had 13 weeks time (or thereabouts) available to them at similar times to their Son's school holidays. I wouldn't complain if I was in this position either. They appear to have been "time rich".

What about other people who have less time available for holidays? - A lot of people struggle to negotiate the holiday times that they want with their employer. Some self employed people are also very restricted as to the times that are available to them. Many people could be described as "time poor". Indeed this applied to my family when I was young. When my father was self employed our family had little time available for holidays even though we were reasonably well off financially.

Maybe some people in the teaching (and linked) professions need to wake up and realize that many people do not have has much time available to them as they do. Some families are very severely affected in circumstances where term time holidays are not permitted whereas certain others are not affected at all.

Perhaps head teachers (the granting of term time holidays is at their discretion) need to show a better understanding of the circumstances of others and look at arguments from a wider perspective.

Also with global warming etc. it is quite possible that there will be less travel available to our kids when they are older. As I see it opportunities need to be taken while they are available.

Sarahsaver

frank_potter wrote:

Agreed by whom?

Schools have home school agreements and you agree to things such as appropriate behaviour, attendance during term time, uniform and so on.

seven-day-weekend

I appreciate frank potter's post about people being 'time-rich' or 'time poor'.

But there are still 13 weeks of school holiday. Surely it is not that difficult to arrange a week when you can all be together?

morlandbanks

My son's attendance at school is very good - though he recently needed 2 days off for illness, one of those days the school was closed because it snowed, so it didn't count. I only asked for 3 days so that he could see his grandparents in Spain. We can't afford the flights during school holidays and my parents only fly here once a year. We got a really stroppy reply - but apparenly that's because of the time of year we're going. In March, April and May the schools have assesments and want full attendance.
I could understand if we were going on a holiday for 2 weeks, but if he can miss a day because it snows, surely his education won't be in tatters because he goes to a foreign country (of which he's learning to language at home, being taught by me). He's only in year 1. And trust me, staying with my parents is no holiday!! That's why we're NOT going for longer! I can understand if the childs attendance is poor or they're consistently late. But my son is always the first at the classroom door and we do extra work with him at home, even though he's so young, because the school say he's struggling. Actually, he's not struggling at all. I've come to realise that he's letting them THINK he can't do the work, because he gets to go into a special group and they do games and fun stuff instead of having to sit and listen (cheeky little sod), but that's another thread...Just how deceptive can a 5 year old be before you worry!! Honestly, I volunteered to listen to the children read and was watching him. He's got them convinced! The special needs teacher was looking at him and pointing to a letter d saying 'what sound does d make?' He just looked at her completely blankly!! So when I read him a story last night I talked to him about it and asked why he hadn't been able to tell what the letters said...He just grinned at me!! i asked him outright if he was pretending not to know so that he could play...He grinned at me!! Little sod!! There's nothing wrong with his devious little mind...If anything, he's far too clever for his own good!! This is not the first time he's wriggled out of work - I had to have his eyes tested because he told his teacher he couldn't see the board...He's got perfect vision, little monster!

smk77

3plus1 wrote:

The boy is six. What exactly did he miss that was so important?

I know I never learned anything at primary school - the only reason why I didn't turn out stupid, was because my family taught me how to read, write and do maths. Although perhaps that was just a case of my particular school being a bit rubbish...

Perhaps he's missing parental influence that you have obviously been fortunate to receive?

smk77

Bagpuss1973 wrote:

I am generalising here...but either

a) Your child is extremely bright - the week will not matter

It will always matter. I child has a right to a full education. A parent does not right to take it away from them.

Bagpuss1973 wrote:

b) Your child is average - the week could encourage other interests and a different educational experience and I am sure they will soon catch up with the work

Different educational experience? Given that the majority of holidays by people in the UK are taken on a Spanish beach can you please explain the "educational" part? Perhaps if they were going on Safari in Kenya I could understand your argument but not a typical package holiday.

Bagpuss1973 wrote:

c) Your child is not the brightest lightbulb in the packet - but they will enjoy their holiday and even if they attend every day they might not pass any exams for the league tables anyway

They might not be the brightest but they'll soon learn that it's ok to bunk off school and work in the future.

Bagpuss1973 wrote:

Plus maybe you should all be speaking to your schools about the time that they close for "training" surely this could be scheduled into the proper school holiday period? And any teachers out there...yes this would mean you went to work whilst the children were off but so do millions of other working parents on an almost daily basis

Why would they moan about this? When I was younger my parents who were both teachers had to go in for training days whilst I was off school. What difference would it make by bolting the days onto the holiday?

Also, why should teachers train during proper school holidays. It's their holiday time too. I certainly wouldn't give up my contractual holiday entitlement for training in my job and wouldn't expect teachers too either.